Waiting.. for Death

Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality. emily dickinson

Do we await death, or rather, can we? ever. Death is perhaps best described as being sneaky, slithery, creepy and yes, eerie. There is gloom surrounding dying, it proscribes an end of all that was. It is opposite of life, its antithesis, its nemesis. Yet that is one truth which we can be absolutely sure of in an ever evasive and changing world. No matter who we are or where we are, which caste or tribe we belong to, how many riches we possess or how penurious we are, whether we are born today or came into being at another time, we all have to face the Grim Reaper sooner or later. But, the fantastical of things is this certainty, this universal principle which makes life what it is, is forever put up on a shelf, ignored, looked away from, not thought about or discussed. We fear the discussion of death more than death itself.
In accepting our mortality, our proclaimed and pronounced sentence on this earth is surely ascertained and recorded by much higher being than us, we refuse to believe it with our heart and soul.

I want to delve into the why of this? For when it comes to death of another we are quick to console ourselves with slogans of 'limited time' on our side, and the final journey. We wait for others to die as a matter of fact. As part of our life and theirs as well, despite having a stubborn refusal to acknowledge of our own temperance. This logic is self-evident, our own annihilation is a far more scarier concept to come to terms with compared to the travails of another. We accept readily the compact time 'terminally' ill have on their hands, and at time wait for them to cross the river Styx sooner than later, especially if the persons are older and have lived a long life. We think and proclaim 'this person was a good soul and he played his innings and now this had to be' and get on with life. It is far more difficult an acceptance in case of younger people who are seen to be shortchanged by life itself. Accidental deaths shock and maim us forever casting those left behind in numbness. But what happens in case of dearly loved and adored significant other. How is one to take into account, assess, reassess and make sense of unfair and untimely deaths, and sudden snatching away of those who make up our lives make sense for us; that is when we cease to be as well.

We are who we are in a contextual web of our family, work, friends and our surroundings, When one such figurehead is removed how are we to reinvent and redefine our own person. Death of another loved one separates us from ourselves, we divide and perish. We begin to realize life will never be picked up again the same way. We conclude or rather are forced to face everyday with a new eye. An eye that is seeing what it has not seen before. Death, only then loses its mysteriousness and becomes part of life....